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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1977-08-04, Page 4714, .7.440.444.777,4 .4"..N.777,77,440,.....44.40777744.77744.0407477.4.44,7404074,,,wA,44447. renver44, Shot in arm There was good news for the area last week in the announcement that Big "0" Drain Tile Limited would be moving their head office and two subsidiaries to Exeter in the immediate future. While a staff of 30 would not be con- sidered a major industry in most com- munities, it is in Exeter and is similar to the other small manufacturers and light in- dustries which play such a vital role in the area economy. Smaller industries of this nature do not tie a community to any particular segment of the economy and the ups and downs which often plague communities where large industrial concerns are located. The firm, of course, is no stranger to this area, with existing plants in Grand Bend and Hensall and management are ob- viously pleased with their operations here as evidenced by the move of their head of- fice. We welcome them to the community and wish them well in their future endeavours. It comes at a time when the area need- ed a shot in the arm in view of the recent setbacks in employment opportunities and hopefully other firms will follow their ex- ample. Deserve commendation The Huron County 4-H leaders came in for some commendation this past week on the occasion of their 25th anniversary reu- nion, and most deserving it is. The guest speaker, Bob Carbert, cor- rectly pointed out that the leaders help cultivate Huron's most valuable crop—its young people. Similar to all crops, this one needs special care and cultivation if it is to be successfully harvested, and that is the role in which the leaders serve. It is a voluntary job, but those who are involved will probably report that the pay is high in terms of seeing the benefits of their dedication and assistance. It was also of interest to note that Carbert defended the competition which plays an important part in 4-H work. For- tunately the program has not succumbed to the growing list of passive programs where such competition is frowned upon. "If you are not prepared to strive to do better, to accomplish more than the other fellow, then you aren't likely to get a great deal out of life," the speaker said in defen- ding the friendly rivalry that exists between 4-H members in their various projects. Many education officials would argue with that assumption, but perhaps they should take a look at the fact that 4-H is growing in numbers, indicating that young people thrive on competition. That, of course, is not the main ingredient of the program, but it is a necessary element which makes the learning process more valuable and certainly more rewarding. Huron County is indeed fortunate to have the willing volunteers who comprise the Leaders' Association and it is of in- terest to note that many of those men and women are graduates of the program themselves, and also that the 4-H programs are being opened up to urban young people as well. Their success of the past 25 years is in- deed commendable and those who have assisted deserve the thanks of this county. Some heads should roll Take me out to the game Some News Is Good News The Canadian Federation of Independent Business 0 Sale Drirefff Spare ChildreAkitifes• Page 4 ra,4744,7777,44, Times-Advocate, August 4, 1977 4444.0.740,44,7w4440740.44,444,04.77044:44.4,-. Drove about 200 miles the other night with a couple of other idiots to watch a big-league double- header baseball game: New York Yankees vs. Toronto Bluejays. "How can you just sit there for six hours, watching a group of grown men do something we used to do in public school, at recess?" my wife asks, with amusement and not a little scorn. Well, it's a little difficult to explain, without sounding childish. In the first place, these are not grown men, They are professional ball players. Secondly, they don't do it quite the way we did it at recess. Thirdly, baseball, once you get it in your blood, is like a low- burning fever, and the only anti- biotic that cools it out is watching a ball game. Baseball players, like hockey players, are not grown men. They are overgrown boys, who are highly paid for doing something they'd rather do than eat. And they do it superbly, with a skill and grace and ease that make the game as thrilling as any ballet. There's an extra charge in the knowledge that one of the dancers is going to make a misstep at any time and come up with egg on his face, instead of the baseball. Finally, I played baseball in a baseball town, from the time I was about eight until I was 16 or so, often for hours a day. My heroes, in those days, were the members of our local professional team, even though it was Class D ball. They were tall and bronzed and lean, college boys and coal miners from the States, many of them with un- pronounceable names that sounded exotic in that small *CNA Anglo-Irish-Scottish community. They weren't great ballplayers; few of them went up to the 'major leagues; but they were pretty good. To us kids, they were Hercules and Achilles rolled into one. To the girls in town, they \were Adonis. They chewed tobacco, and we imitated them with licorice. They spoke with a variety of Yankee drawls and we tried to copy them, much to the dismay of our mothers. They ambled and slouched, and we did the same. We couldn't afford the ad- mittance price in those Depression days, but we never missed a game. There were ways: over the fence; through a hole in the fence; carrying in players' equipment; tending the water bucket; shagging pop or beer bottles and turning them in for the refund. It was always summer, in those summers long ago. It never rained, or blew, or turned cold. The sun always shone, the pop was always ice cold, the popcorn was crisp with real butter, the hot dogs were red hot. There was no night baseball then. We didn't have lights. But about five o'clock on a summer evening, the merchants began rolling up their awnings, kids were gulping down their early suppers, and everybody headed for the ball park. Everybody knew practically everybody on every team in the league. Everybody knew that the umpire, Pete O'Brien, was blind as a bat. Everybody knew that Izzie Mysel, all six-two and 180 pounds of him, would go for the fences every time, and probably strike out four times in a row, There was no fancy electronic scoreboard, but everybody knew exactly how many balls and strikes there were on the batter, how many strikeouts the pitcher had made, and how many hits each player had. It wasn't so difficult then. Usually, nine men played the entire game. Pinch-hitters were a rarety, because, naturally, all your best hitters were already playing. When you had, and could only afford, a rotating pitching staff of two, the pitcher was seldom pulled. There was no artificial turf, with its exact bounce. There were pebbles and tufts of grass that would give a ball a bad hop and put it over the fielder's head, or through his legs, and make a single into a triple. And - this is one of the grand things about baseball - there was always a chance, even when it was 15-3, for a hometeam rally in the last of the ninth, with all its wild excitement. That's where baseball has it over other spectator sports. If the score in hockey is 8-2 with two minutes to go, it's game over. Not even the Lord could score that many in that time. Same in football. Score 30-10 and a minute and a half left, there is no way. But in baseball, the game is never over until the last player is retired. A real baseball fan never gives up. In those days, you didn't see the fans filing out early if their team was away behind. We sat tight, waiting for the miracle. Greatest humiliation of my life was taking a called strike with the count three and two and the winning runs on second and third, two out, last of the ninth, And I still swear that ball was low. And maybe those are the reasons I went to that double- j:.. Amalgamated 1924 RtUl R1RRON AWARD 1074 Ontario Liberal leader Stuart Smith has called for a public in- quiry into escalating costs on the Bruce nuclear power project and his comments have resulted in some interesting rebuttals. The most difficult to com- prehend are those by Hydro chairman Robert Taylor, who said that no public inquiry is re- quired because Ontario Hydro is well aware of the problems. In fact, he says they've been aware of the problems for the past two years, The question arises, then, why didn't Hydro do something at that time to straighten out the situation? Why weren't they successful in getting the con- struction company to improve their performance and efficien- cy? Those questions are of par- ticular interest to all Ontario residents, because the Bruce power stations are going to cost them $400,000,000 more than originally estimated. That figure is beyond the comprehension of most people, although the ramifications are becoming quite evident,ciri most hydro bills these days. The contract for the mammoth construction job is open-ended, in that the Company is paid on a cost-plus-fee arrangement. There is little incentive for them to worry about the costs. As a result, it appears to be fairly common knowledge that the pay scale on the job is ex- cessive and the work ethic is negligible. It is rather obvious that many of the employees realize they have an exceptionally good thing going for them and are in no hurry to see their opportunity ended by finishing the project. The longer it carries on, the longer they keep their fat pay cheques rolling in, So why hurry? This is the type of attitude that prevails on many government jobs and the taxpayers keep pay- ing the bills. Actually, it would appear that a few heads should roll . and the sooner the better. A local resident recently returned from a short stay in the Niagara Falls area and found ample evidence that Ontario's tourist industry is in sqme trou- ble, The problem is one of costs, He noted that many restaurants on the Ontario side of the border were lacking customers, while their American cohorts were enjoying brisk business, with many of their customers being Canadians as he determined from the car licence plates in the parking lots. He found restaurant meals to be substantially lower in the U.S. One of the American tourists he talked with lived in southern New York state and had an- ticipated taking his family to Toronto after their visit to Niagara Falls. However, he was turning back because of On- tario's high rate for motel rooms, meals and gasoline. Most area residents who have done any travelling in the past couple of years have found it more economical to travel in the U.S., with some accommodation header. Never mind the four hours driving. Never mind the horrible traffic. Never mind the rip-off prices and the claustrophobic feeling of being in a mob of 40,000 frying to get out of a The m g stadium.a e still has some of its old magic,on almidsummers eve, The players still boot that crucial ball. The coaches still make ad the wrong decisions. The umpires still have myopia. And the music of the crowd and the smells of the food and the sight of that little white pill sailing off into the blue, headed for the fence, make for a great evening of nosfalgia. being almost half the price south of the border. Obviously, Ontario is slowly pricing itself out of the tourist market, as it is in many other markets as well. * Many area residents no doubt will be sympathizing with the Amish folk who are being forced out of the dairy business because they cannot accept a ruling that their milk must be handled in bulk coolers. This means mechanization for the Amish, and many have chosen to sell their farms in Western Ontario and head for the U.S. where they can still cling to their lifestyle. The edict is a little difficult to understand. Surely there can be no major problem with allowing these people to use milk cans. To our knowledge, the people who have been drinking their milk have suffered no ill effects over the past years and there is no reason to assume that will change. No doubt the Ontario Milk Marketing Board has some good reasons why the change is being made, but it is doubtful that the reasons are really good enough to warrant the necessity for peo- ple to give up their homes and move elsewhere. But then, it seems more and more that people are secondary when it comes to our penchant Mr. Batten: I appreciate your article on the issue of having to erect a fence around a small pool. I might add I did write to-the Ontario Municipal Board and received their answer saying that they had no jurisdiction over the by-law. I have looked into this and it seems town council was aware of this. It seems to me a waste of council's time and mine to discuss my objections and then for them to mislead me into believing the O.M.B. would give a ruling. In my opinion I see no use of having meetings like this con- cerning any issues if this is how a taxpayer in Exeter is treated. Yours truly, B. Wedlake Dear Editor: It is seventy-five years since the Peace' of Vereeniging brought the Anglo-Boer War to a close. The Boer War was the occasion of Canada's first major overseas military campaign, and relatively little has been written about the participation of the Canadian contingents. I am engaged in researching the role of the Canadian forces in this conflict, and I am anxious to 'get in touch with surviving veterans or with relatives of friends of veterans. Volunteers from Ontario were especially prominent in the Canadian contingents in South Africa. I will be travelling and researching throughout Ontario during the next few months and I would be most grateful if readers could assist me in this project. I am especially anxious to gain access to papers in private possession pertaining to the War. Should readers be aware of the existence of letters, diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, paintings or any other pertinent material, I would be most ap- preciative if they would write to me at the address below as seen for bigness and our worship of everything that is modern and ef- ficient. It does seem strange, though, that at a time when we hear frightening comments about energy shortages that people are being forced into a situation where they can no longer do things by hand. We appear to live in times of great contradiction! as possible. In addition to the troops, there were . also Canadian correspondents, doctors, nurses, priests and teachers who went to South Africa. Any information about these participants would also be greatly appreciated. Hugh Robertson 224 Springfidld Road, Ottawa, Ontario. KIM 0K9. A sincere thanklyou from the Denfield Centennial Committee for the coverage you gave our two day celebration July 16 and 17. We appreciated the advertising previews to the events and the excellent write-up and pictures following. We had good crowds and a successful two day programme. We realize many people read about the plans in your paper and we did appreciate your co- operation with us. Thanking you again. Sincerely, Thelma Jones secretary. * * * Parrsboro, N.S. July 23, 1977 Dear Sir: After reading your editorial about the pony express thought you might be interested in this bit of news, My copy of The Exeter Times- Advocate dated July 21 arrived July 23. This means it came a distance of over 100 miles in two days which is hard to believe. I also received the July 14 copy in same mail, Regards, Marion Wasson 55 Years Ago Over 20 Boy Scouts in charge of Scoutmasters Thos. Pryde, G. S. Howard and Jas, Grieve left Wednesday morning for Bayfield where they will camp for two weeks. Last Thursday the roof of Winchelsea creamery caught on fire, it is supposed from sparks from the chimney. Mrs. Hein was passing at the time and noticed the blaze. She informed the men at the creamery who soon got the fire under control. Czar Harness has resigned his position as barber with F. M. Boyle. Flax pulling is well advanced. About 50 Indians are engaged in the work. The Exeter flax mill have 200 acres of flax and it is a fair crop. The first to deliver new wheat at Harvey Bros. mill this season was Mr. S. Parsons, of Stephen, who threshed it in the field on Wednesday of last week. 30 Years Ago The hottest spell of the year has visited Ontario during the past few days, with the ther- mometer registering around 90 degrees. The newly organized chapter Beta Sigma Phi held a wiener roast at Port Blake Tuesday evening. Don Traquair, Exeter, Melvin Gaiser, Shipka, and Glen McTavish, London, are holiday- ing at Grand Bend. Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Clark, Crediton,,returned home on Fri- day after spending the month of July at Sundridge, Muskoka. Reeve B. W. Tuckey and coun- cillors W.iG. Cochrane and A. J. Sweitzer on Thursday joined the representatives of several municipalities on a 70 mile tour of the Aux Sable Watershed by the Ontario Department of Plan- ning. 20 Years Ago Elston Cardiff, veteran Huron MP who was appointed govern- ment whip recently, is in Ottawa this week conferring with Prime Minister Diefenbaker and his by JIM SMITH In the beginning, Canada was a nation of tiny towns with equally tiny weekly newspapers. Some of the towns grew up to become cities like Vancouver, Toron- to, and Halifax — and their papers grew with them. More of the towns lost their resi- dents to the big cities, though, and many of the small publishers went out of business. It hasn't been easy in the community newspaper business. A couple of weeks ago, however, the Canadian Com- munity Newspaper Associa- tion held its annual conven- tion in Winnipeg. And, for an industry that was virtually given up for dead a decade ago, this was a remarkably lively corpse. There are hun- dreds of new community newspapers today, most of them run by highly trained professional newsmen ear- ning enviable profits. It's very nice that times have changed for the com- munity newspapers. But the real significance of their re- surgence is found in the markets these newspapers have carved out for them- selves rather than in their corporate balance sheets. The real story is that Canada is becoming a nation of communities again. The big cities wiped out community life. They grew so rapidly that no one felt a sense of identification. But, as the growth slowed, the neighbourhoods stabilized and even the residents of the biggest cities discovered that they shared concerns with their neighbours. cabinet about his new duties. Voldemars Gulens, 19, son of Doctors Voldemars and Mirdza Gulens, Dashwood, became the first student at SHDHS to receive first class honors in nine upper school subjects when results were announced by Prin- cipal H. L. Sturgis. He received an average of 86 percent. The resignation of Herbert Wainwright as clerk was -accepted at a recent meeting of Grand Bend council. He has been confined to his home through il- lness. Liberals Monday night nominated A. E. "Pete" Smith, Ilderton, farmer-realtor, to vie with the PC's W. A. "Bill" Stewart, Denfield, farmer for the seat in the by-election in North Middlesex, The seat was left vacant by the death of Tom Patrick. 15 Years Ago Roy Webber, Main St., recent- ly was presented with a watch by officials of Canadian Canners Ltd., in recognition of his 25 years of employment with the company. The presentation was made by Wayne Paxton, western district supervisor, Hamilton. Mr. Webber is a viner and husker boss at the local plant. Exeter council has requested the Mid-Western Ontario Development Association to con- duct an industrial survey of this community, .to determine the in- dustrial potential of the area and the particular advantages the, community offers for develop- ment, Grand Bend council was in- formed by George Jackson, Deputy Minister of public parks, that the department plans to dredge 12,500 cubic feet of sand and silt from the local harbour to facilitate boats which are again having difficulty entering the harbour. Even town council postponed a decision on a request for a liquor vote in Exeter. Mayor Eldrid Simmons said a full council should be present to discuss the question. The request came from Amelia Acheson, owner of the Central Hotel, The new communities aren't as easily defined geo- graphically as the traditional small towns with their legal boundaries. Visitors can't distinguish the Annex from Cabbagetown in Metro Toronto; but the residents feel the communal forces. The major daily newspapers can't service these fragmen- ted markets effectively so the new breed of weekly news- paper has sprung up to look after the urban neighbour- hood. In effect, the community newspaper publishers have been one of the first indus- trial groups to recognize the Canadian Federation of In- dependent Business' obser- vation that Canadian society is decentralizing. The same forces that are making more and more businessmen into independent entrepreneurs rather than big business administrators .are bringing neighbourhoods closer to- gether, The rise of the neighbour- hood, more than any other social force in Canada today, may be the one element which holds our country together. Consider just one ,example of how neighbour- hood identification provides stability. In mid-July, New York City suffered a power failure that sent thousands of looters into the streets. A few days later, Toronto's community of North York suffered a similar power fai- lure and there wasn't a single violent incident. That's the real meaning behind the rise of the community news- paper. Times Established 1873 x Advocate Established 1881 eceleahnesAbticicafe SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Plant Manager — Bill Weeldey Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Phone 235-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mad Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation September 30, 1975 5,409 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $2100 A couple of weeks ago this newspaper was chastised for not giving the local Boy Scouts more press coverage. The letter writer suggested that if the boys were involved in sporting events, they would receive more publicity for their activities. That may be the case, but it is only because some of the people involved in sports make certain that we are kept abreast of what is going on by providing us with I score sheets and results of their activities. We find that the local Brow- nies and Guides keep us in- formed and their events are covered whenever possible. There is certainly nothing we would like better than to do the same for the Scouts, but if no one informs us of what they are do- ing, it is difficult to provide them with news coverage. 414